On the Road Again 2013 Train #5

The last few hours of my train trip were equally as interesting as the previous day. The landscape gradually changed from the wide open rolling vistas to more and steeper hills with denser wooded areas. The trees which had been primarily single popular/aspen type trees scattered over the low hills and valleys switched from single trees to groves and finally to forests of conifers and aspens.  As we started to get deeper and deeper into the mountains I could feel the excitement build. I was finally getting to be on the road. It had been a long wait!

 I am not too sure when I first noticed that the railroad ties were not made out of heavily creosoted wood but were rather made out of concrete. Which initially made sense to me. However I started to rethink that opinion when I saw large piles of used concrete tie. It seemed to me that a significant number of them were cracked and the cement had deteriorated.  Perhaps the prairie winters were just too much for them. I assume CNR were experimenting.

While the schedule conflicts between passenger train and freight trains had greatly been reduced there were still times when we had to pull of on to a siding to let a freight go through. I couldn't help but notice that some of the grain cars that passed me had little mats of grass and weeds growing  at the ends of their platforms. I assumed it was because various seeds had been spilled as the cars were either loaded or unloaded. Some of those seeds that had sprouted were canola. Which makes one wonder.... will those plants spread their seeds across the prairies. And if so who will get sued for disseminating patented seed.

 The train arrived in Jasper right on time. It was interesting to note that the train which was rather long (19 cars) stopped so that the first class passengers did not have to walk too far to the station but us poor economy class folks had to walk a fair distance to get to the station and the exit. Just before I had left I had bought new walking shoes. They had felt great in Sudbury but as soon as I put them on in Jasper they felt far too tight and way too uncomfortable. As well it had started to rain and so I had to put on my rain jacket which is superb at keeping out moisture. Unfortunately it also keeps in my sweat.  It did not feel like a particularly grand start to my trip.

 I had a hard time finding the right exit out of town.I walked down one road, couldn't find a reasonable place to stand, walked back to the stop light, looked at the map again, still was not to sure what to do so I decided to walk towards some signs half of a kilometer down the road, looked the map again and finally decided that I wanted to head west - not south. My chosen spot was not a great one. I was by a set of stop lights but the shoulder was not particularly wide and certainly no truck could have stopped but it was the best I could do.

I was there for about 30-40 minutes when a small pickup truck pulled in. Out popped my driver from last year who had rescued me in Kenora and driven me all of the way to Sudbury. He had followed his dream and had moved back to Jasper to be near the mountains he loved. I was glad to see that he had done what he said he was going to do. We chatted for 10 or so minutes and he invited me to the hostel if  I could not get  ride. Amongst other things he told me that he had kept my sign in his car until he left for Jasper,  I told him that I still had the " Big Nickel " souvenir that he had given me in my car. It felt good to have a friend.

 I stood at that spot for at least another hour. At one point a new looking small 4x4 stopped and a young lady got out. The male driver drove away. Initially I assumed that she was an employee from a store in town and that she was just waiting for a ride from friend. She did not make eye contact with me. A trucker going in the other direction and stopped at the light yelled out that I would have better luck if I had her as a partner.I was embarrassed for both her and myself.  Eventually the vehicle that had dropped her off came back and she walked away from it. As it got closer to her, she turned around and headed back to town totally ignoring him. He called her name and when she did not respond - took off. A lover's spat????  I would have become involved but she seemed to know her own mind and he was at least somewhat respectful of it.

 Finally a large pickup truck stopped.  The back seat looked rather crowded with stuff so I threw my pack in the back and hoped that it would not rain too much. I was ready for first ride of the year.